President’s perspective

Due to the lockdowns across Victoria, the February meeting of Council was held predominantly outside Melbourne for the first time in the history of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS). Our brand new South Australian office was the meeting point for the majority of the Councillors, with small hubs in our offices in Wellington, Melbourne and Sydney, where others assembled to join the meeting.

While we have held many face-to-face meetings over the years and have also become accustomed to virtual meetings, the hybrid approach used for this Council meeting was another first. Arranging the logistics of this, particularly at such short notice, was no small feat and I would like to thank the many people, especially staff in Melbourne and Adelaide, who ensured that the meeting ran smoothly.

At the meeting, elections were held for office-bearing positions. Congratulations to Dr Sally Langley who will be the next RACS President, and to Dr Lawrie Malisano who will take on the role of vice president. Sally and Lawrie will commence their leadership roles during the RACS Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) in May.

During the meeting, the RACS Business Plan for 2021 was approved. This includes information on the planned upgrades to the Spring Street offices in Melbourne.

The previously approved plans agreed on before the onset of COVID-19 have been put on hold and our position needs to be reassessed. Many of our Melbourne staff have begun returning to work, but we expect the working environment to look significantly different to 18 months ago. As such, Council has decided to re-evaluate the whole project and we expect that any new proposals will differ significantly from what was originally envisaged.

The meeting also saw the renaming of various boards and committees, and the establishment of a new Health Policy and Advocacy Committee (HPAC). The New Zealand National Board will now be known as the Aotearoa New Zealand National Committee (AoNZNC), and the Professional Development and Standards Board has been renamed to the Professional Standards and Advocacy Committee. The name changes reflect a decision in recent years to move away from using the term ‘board’ to describe our various governing bodies, with the exception of the Board of Council.

The role of HPAC will be to identify and advise on advocacy initiatives and priorities. It will ultimately work with the offices of the president and vice president in managing health policy and political advocacy. The committee will meet regularly, and it is expected that there will also be a significant amount of out-of-session work. This will allow the College to generate content quickly and respond to the often very short turnaround times of government consultations.

Another flagship area of our Business Plan is the Rural Health Equity Strategic Action Plan. For those who are unaware, the Strategic Action Plan embeds actions for rural health equity in all RACS activities and across all specialties and is available on our website.

Thank you to Dr Bridget Clancy and the Rural Surgery Section Committee, who were instrumental in developing this key RACS strategic action plan. Council has now approved a Rural Health Equity Steering Committee for managing the principles outlined in the action plan and prioritising the actions for implementation.

Since the Council meeting, we celebrated International Women’s Day in March and RACS offices held various events across Australia and New Zealand. As you know, the College has made a number of specific commitments to promote greater gender diversity and we are working towards these as part of our Building Respect and Improving Patient Safety initiative. This work is incredibly important and will remain an ongoing priority for the College, particularly in the context of the national and global conversations that are occurring regarding gender equity, discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment.

I was pleased to see a number of our highly talented female surgeons profiled through our online social media campaign during International Women’s Day. I hope this type of visibility will inspire the next generation of female surgeons and help us achieve the goals we aspire towards.

I would also like to announce that the President’s Meeting Room in Melbourne is to be renamed the Anne Kolbe Room, in honour of our first female president. More changes are being discussed to recognise our diverse Fellowship.

I would like to draw your attention to our updated complaints process. As many of you know, our position as a member organisation does not provide us with the powers that a hospital or medical centre that employs surgeons has, or that a regulator such as the Medical Council of New Zealand (MCNZ) or the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) holds.

With this in mind, we have taken steps to revise our approach. We learned from the way we used to address complaints. We have developed a process that supports professionalism in surgery and makes sure that all complaints and concerns are handled by the agency best placed to manage them.

I would like to finish by thanking you all for the support that you have extended to me over the past two years. This was especially appreciated during the extraordinarily difficult circumstances we faced in 2020 and 2021.

I have had the great honour of working with some exceptional people during my time on Council. There are far too many to name, but I would like to make particular mention of the two vice presidents that served during my term, Mr Richard Perry and Associate Professor Julie Mundy, as well as Associate Professor Phill Carson, Censor-in-Chief, who, like Julie and myself, will be finishing his time on Council during the RACS ASC in May.

Finally, I wish Sally and Lawrie all the best in leading our College forward. I have known them both for many years, and they are incredibly passionate about surgical standards and education. They will make exceptional leaders of our College, and I am excited to see what RACS will achieve under their guidance.

I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the RACS ASC.

Images Above: Associate Professor Phillip Carson, Associate Professor Julie Mundy and Dr Tony Sparnon. Over page: Dr Sparnon with Councillors. Front: Mr Adrian Anthony, Dr Sarah Coll, Associate Professor Julie Mundy. Second row: Dr Pecky De Silva (Observer), Professor Deborah Bailey, Dr Tony Sparnon, Professor Henry Woo. Third row: Professor Christopher Pyke, Dr John Quinn (Executive Director for Surgical Affairs Australia), Dr Lawrence Malisano, Associate Professor Phillip Carson, Professor David Fletcher, Professor Owen Ung, Dr Christine Lai. Back corner: Dr Gregory Witherow.

Dr Tony Sparnon President